2 Player Cupboard of Shame: Lulu

First of all, we'd like to thank the amazing yurricanes for working with us to create the featured image for this episode. I think you'll agree that it's an amazing piece of art, and you should definitely check out their work.

We'd also like to thank Georgie (aka ChapSketch) for working with Squidge on the episode artwork for the entire New Cupboard of Shame series. Head on over to Georgie's Etsy page to commission some work from her. You really should, as she's blooming brilliant.

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

Squidge was fully in charge of hosting, producing and editing this episode. As such, he decided to leave the few swears in the episode without bleeping them. This was done for comedy reasons, as we felt that there is very little in the episode which could offend most listeners.

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

Squidge wanted to take a shiny new look at The Cupboard of Shame. The difference being that he wanted to invite some familiar voices onto the show, one at a time, and discuss one game that they want to jettison into the Cupboard of Shame. For his second episode on the eponymous - and totally real cupboard - cupboard, he could think of none better than Lulu.

As a quick reminder, Squidge describes The Cupboard of Shame as:

The idea behind it is games that you have bought in your past, played it, but you don't know why you bought [them] but you did anyway.
Any complaints that you have about the game; why you want to stick it in the Cupboard of Shame. We'll talk about the good points and the bad points [of the game], and we'll share some fun facts about the game.
- Squidge

Previous Entries into the Cupboard of Shame

The Cupboard of Shame reboot has only seen one entry so far, which was when Chief Problems decided that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim needed to be stored behind the walnut doors of destiny. You can hear Chief's reasoning behind his choice on episode 136 - which you can listen to here.

Prior to the Cupboard of Shame reboot, Squidge has challenged both G and himself to put some titles into the Cupboard of Shame. The titles that they chose include:

• Iron Man the Movie Video Game
• WET
• Rambo: The Video Game
• Crackdown
• Final Fantasy XIII

You can hear their discussion on these games (and a few more) in episode 47: The Cupboard of Shame - here's a link to that episode.

Lulu's Chosen Game

Squidge started this episode strongly:

Any road, we've gone completely off topic
- Squidge

And that was in the first three minutes of the episode. But very shortly after that, he asked Lulu for the title of the one game that she would like to discuss:

I did have a long think about this, I'll be perfectly honest. But every time I thought about it, one game kept coming up and it was: Chaos Legion
- Lulu

But before they could discuss the game, Squidge needed to describe the game's setup:

Two men, once friends, now have their fates tied together by the death of a young maiden. Each man holds the key to a sacred glyph that, when combined with the other two, can open the Gateway of Chaos and lead the people to the Red Moon.
- GameFaqs; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/562317-chaos-legion

Talk about "dun dun duuuun"

He also wanted to give a description of when he first encountered the game - you know, for science and stuff:

It was 2003, I was 14. It was the weekend. Reallising as I woke up, that due to exceptional circumstances I was awake, it was very real to me that for the most of the day I would be unsupervised. Anything could happen.
However, I had recently picked up a game called "Chaos Legion", and hilarity ensued. As you might imagine
- Squidge

But why did Lulu buy this game?

I just remember seeing the trailer playing a lot in [my local GAME] store. And I really, really liked the style of it. It was kind of like gothic and a little bit steampunky, and that is entirely my jam.
- Lulu

What's So Bad About it?

Any discussion of a bad game needs to cover what's so bad about the game. So Squidge asked, "what's so bad about this game?"

I do remember 1) the controls being a little bit janky (and that's being nice), and 2) the gameplay being kinda repetitive.
- Lulu

Naff controls and repetitive gameplay is not what you want from a - pause for effect whilst we check the box - Capcom game?! Seriously? Capcom made this?

I remember thinking, "haven't I done this level already?" because they all started looking very, very samey. I know that with early Devil May Cry games they were corridor simulators. But at least with the Devil May Cry games, they had a good story. The Chaos Legion story felt a bit flat.
- Lulu

Another criticism was the difficulty and the repetitive nature of having to replay previous missions, multiple times in a row, in order to get the required exp level to play the next level.

Again, I play [Final Fantasy XIV] and that's just grinding [for experience points]. But there comes a point where you're just like, "I just want to progress." It doesn't feel like there's an end in sight.
- Lulu

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